The Phoenicia Times - Follow Up on the News

Follow Up on the News

Defining What's Local

            Belligerence surfaced on a couple of occasions, when opposition forces heckled union representatives while they were speaking. Bunce drew a loud response when he called project opponents "obstructionist," as did Teamster representative Rodney Van Voorhis of Local 445 out of Newburgh when he taunted several Onteora students carrying placards.
            Sam Fratto, Assistant Business Manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers out of Harriman, got both sides of the audience on their feet when he told those opposing the Gitter proposal, students and local alike combined, to "grow up," called the region's second homes a sign of gluttony, then suggested that if people really wanted wilderness experiences in the Catskills, they might consider destroying those second homes.
            Each of the union speakers, which included a representative of the AFL/CIO out of Rockland County, talked about the need for "quality jobs" in the area and Gitter's promise to "hire locally."
            Later, as the union forces started to leave two hours into the eight hour meeting, a survey of twenty-eight of them revealed that the closest had come from Liberty, in neighboring Sullivan County, or Gardiner and Lloyd in southern Ulster County. They all said they'd been told to come via e-mails and phone calls because their presence could "assure us jobs down the line when he project starts," as Robert Piatt of Local 417, Ironworkers, put it.
            Pruitt and his union-mate, James Hubbard of Newburgh, said they'd been given the idea that a moratorium on all development and construction was to be set in place in the Catskills. It was their first time in the area. They said from what they could see driving up Route 28 from the Thruway to Boiceville, there was already enough wilderness around not to heed a Not-In-My-Backyard opposition to a resort that would bring good jobs.
            "This is definitely the sticks out here," Hubbard said.
            Bunce, who also serves as President of the Catskills Casino Coalition, which has been lobbying for gambling as a salve for the region's economic problems, publicly referred to a Project Labor Agreement he made recently with Gitter, based on the developers' promise "that local labor will be utilized throughout the various phases of the project."
            Speaking by phone from his Orange County offices after the hearing, Bunce said that he had signed the "front end" of a deal for the initial construction phase of the Belleayre resort project "about a year ago." He then explained that "local" refers to a seven county area, union-wise. He urged those who were non-union workers looking for jobs from Shandaken and neighboring towns to apply for apprenticeship positions with the various trades as a means of getting on the proposed job site.
            "Unfortunately, a lot of the local non-union guys up there just don't have the manpower to proceed with a job of this sort," Bunce said. "I know Catskill Corners used local, non-union labor, but this is a different thing altogether."
            So how, when, and why did the word go out to the various unions' rank and file to show up en masse for the February 19 hearing?
            Bunce said that he had been keeping tabs on the string of hearings that started in mid-January and "felt there had to be some people up there speaking for the project." He arranged attendance with "Gitter's people" over recent weeks.
            Fratto said that he had organized his union's attendance after Bunce told him that Crossroads was seeking union help at the hearing. "We're for this project until told otherwise," Fratto said, explaining how he'd put the word out to 150 of his unemployed rank and file the day before. "They came because they want the work and know this is how they're going to get it."
            Asked whether anyone had been reimbursed for travel expenses, Bunce replied, "Absolutely not! Did you ask that question of the people who spoke against the project?"
            As for any possible tie-ins to his other job as a casino advocate, the labor organizer spoke of how all deals were currently for casinos down in the Route 209 corridor. He said he didn't think that Route 28 could handle such traffic. But then Bunce raised the subject of Senator John Bonacic's recently proposed legislation to open up gambling into Greene County and other areas, and remove the need for any tie-ins to Native American tribes.
            Throughout the entire hearing process for the Belleayre Resort DEIS, advocates of the massive development -- which would place two golf resorts, two hotels, and multiple time share homes and condominiums along the ridgeline surrounding the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center - have lauded the project's promise of local jobs cutting back on local residents' need to go elsewhere, from Olive to Kingston, for employment.
            Other speakers focused on issues of community character and possible pollution.
            Marino D'Orazio, president of the Onteora School Board, read a statement from the district outlining its concerns regarding increased traffic on Route 28. Monla Davenport, President of the Catskill 3500 Club and a member of the Woodstock Civic Design Committee, spoke of the Catskill Park's concept of wilderness and how the project would harm the Catskill Park's inherently special qualities. Dr. Mac Lipkin of Chichester spoke on behalf of the many second homers who make the area home and are against the project, later challenging Fratto on his call to take down second homes if people wanted wilderness.
            Drawing on his experience as former President of the Bowery Savings Bank and Executive Director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation following the S&L debacle of the 1980s, which he helped pull the nation out of, attorney Stuart D. Root of Roscoe outlined potential problems with the funding behind Belleayre Resorts.
            "The Crossroads venture simply does not pass the smell test," Root said. "Gitter's ability to start ripping up the mountainside is not in question. Rather it is his ability to complete the project, involving some of the most difficult of all improvements to finance, namely time-shares. Many institutional lenders will not touch such fragile real estate structures. So where is Mr. Gitter getting his funds? And if he cannot say, for whatever reason, should he be allowed willy-nilly to 'start' construction?"
            To date, Gitter has explained his financing plans in terms of investors, the only visible team currently being that of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Chairman Richard Fisher and Fisher's ex-wife Emily.
            Explaining how large development financing on the scale Gitter is proposing usually works, Root spoke of two basic steps. First, a lending institution is approached, usually a large bank or investment house at such a large level. The developer lays out his plans, including how he plans to pay back whatever loans are granted. Second, the lending institution seeks protection against its own shareholders, whose money they will be doling out, so they don't end up with a hole in the ground if the project fails- usually in the form of some sort of bonding.
            "In this situation, what Gitter's basically doing is blowing smoke by saying he's got deep pockets so no one should be asking such questions," Root said. "He's making it all look very cozy- and yet we haven't seen a single commitment from any of the people behind all of this."
            His views were repeated, and augmented, by apartment house developer Larry Ravitz of Takoma Park, MD in a separate interview.
            The entire real estate financing world is in flux, Ravitz said. Fears in the development industry are that the low interest rates that have fueled construction in recent months cannot hold indefinitely, that they're an aberration that will eventually face correction, likely after the election. When that happens, he said, the costs for those seeking to buy, rent, or in Gitter's case, visit a resort like the proposed Belleayre Resort will go up far beyond what's now being touted. And that could spell serious trouble.
            "It all comes down to how quickly one can build right now," Ravitz said. "You don't want to end up with an albatross. The big risk any developer takes is that the interest rates will go up before you've finished what you're doing."
            "Of course, our investors are going for a non-recourse basis for whatever they have in the project," an officer at Crossroads Ventures'said after being told of Root's comments, and Ravitz's questions. "I can't speak about how much equity our investors have at this point! Whatever it is, it is. And it will all be at risk."
            Gitter, when reached for comment, hung up the phone when asked about financing.
            "I think the investors would rather not talk on the record about financing other than that there have been any number of meetings with people in the (resorts) industry who have given them encouragement. They say this year, compared to last year, is really looking up, especially since the hit the entire industry took back with the 9/11 tragedy," the Crossroads' official continued. "There are people the investors are in regular touch with who do all sorts of analyzing of the industry."
            Finally, asked again about financing assurances, the official said that "some major banking or pension funds" would be used.
            "Why does this Mr. Root think he's such an expert," the official concluded.
            Back at the Onteora High School hearing, a letter was read by Jon Griesser, a 1994 Onteora graduate. Co-signed by 17 Onteora and Margaretville High School graduates of recent years, Griesser's comments focused on the jobs issues Gitter's advocates have repeatedly alluded to, saying that as far as most of the young locals he knew thought, they'd rather have wilderness than resort jobs. He further posited that any pollution harming the New York City watershed the project's in the middle of, or even an angering of the city, could lead to the need for the city to build a long-averted filtration system that would effectively end New York's current funding of development loans and grants to the region.

Rookie Review Board

            Kalb, a former chairman and 5-year veteran on the board, gave notice of his departure in late January, citing frustrations including the board's slow progress in beginning study of the Belleayre Resort project. He will be taking a job with the nascent Catskills Watershed Museum, being run by Belleayre Resort project manager Gary Gailes.
            McGowan, a town board candidate in the last election, had been appointed to the planning board last year but was never administered his oath of office, an omission requiring his removal under state law. Rather than reappointing him and having the oath administered, Supervisor Cross instead announced that the town board would seek new applicants for the position.
            Setchko was widely seen in GOP circles last year as developer Dean Gitter's candidate for town supervisor, narrowly losing that ballot slot to Bob Cross Jr. at the party's June caucus. He is on record as opposing any role for the planning board beyond its 60-day maximum site-plan review, and has publicly questioned whether the town needs to take any role at all in reviewing the Belleayre Resort's Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
            In recent years, planning board appointments have taken on a heightened significance, as the board has broad authority in the conduct of SEQRA reviews and will ultimately vote on the issuance of building and other permits for the proposed Belleayre Resort project.
            Meanwhile, the Planning Board's future chairmanship remains uncertain. Current Chair Beth Waterman appears to have the confidence of her fellow planners, who have voted twice this year that she be reappointed as chair by the new administration. In January, the Planning Board's vote in favor of her chairmanship was 6 members in favor and Bob Kalb abstaining. A second vote February 16 without McGowan present yielded 5 members supporting Waterman, and Kalb opposed.
            To date, Supervisor Cross has given no indication the town board will abide by the planning board's choice, beyond a comment at February's town board meeting that an overwhelming vote of the planning board would be "significant" in the town board's decision.
            According to Cross, "It's not clear to me whether or not there's going to be a chairperson appointed in March."
            Reached for comment on the continuing uncertainty of her reappointment, Waterman would say only that, "I hope the town board's decision will reflect the best interests of all the residents in the town of Shandaken."

Our New Super...

             Winters said, "One of my strengths is bringing groups together," as she described her methods for healing splits within a community. "It takes a lot of sitting around a table and talking in a productive way. At some point you cut through to what the anger's about and come up with a strategy. Administrators need to hear and understand both sides and always put the children first. Later on it helps to have a whole new positive initiative rather than focusing on the negative." In the case of Webatuck, the construction of a middle school, their first capital project in fifty years, brought people together.
            A reorganization occurred when their two kindergarten through third-grade schools were experiencing an imbalance in class sizes. Busing was used to solve the problem but resulted in resentment from parents when children living across the street from one school had to ride to the other school. Finally it was acknowledged that declining enrollments and the space offered by the new middle school would make the smaller elementary school unnecessary.
            "It took two or three painful meetings," said Winters, "but even the teachers realized that there would be advantages to having more classes in one school, allowing team teaching. The children felt it least. They're all right as long as they're with their teachers and peers." Now the district is negotiating to rent out the vacant school as a Veterans Administration clinic.
            Winters suggested that having more stable leadership at the school will be helpful. One of the new superintendent's first tasks will be to hire a replacement for Woodstock's interim principal, Bob Keagle, successor to a number of principals who lasted only a year or two.
            When asked how Winters would deal with teachers who were resistant to change. Winters described a conflict between teachers and parents at the middle and high school in her district after the institution of block scheduling, which divided the day into 90-minute blocks, with students taking only three courses per semester. Parents felt their children were missing important subjects in alternate years and had overloaded responsibilities in some grades. Teachers, who liked the depth of instruction this schedule afforded, felt attacked. The solution was to conduct a survey and solicit reactions to the issue, as well as research what was happening in other districts. The final recommendations were to switch back to 45-minute classes at the middle school and to provide training for teachers to help them utilize the high school's 90-minute blocks better.
            Winters said staff development was a priority in her district.
            And what about possible tax increases?
"We had the same budget challenges as every other district last year," Winters said. "We met with our curriculum leaders and parent groups, and we ended up cutting 8.5 teaching positions, or ten percent of our teachers. We had to demonstrate why, for example, a second art teacher was not needed at the high school. We have extremely conservative factions in the community and on the board who always agitate for lower taxes."
            In her seven years at Webatuck, all her budgets have passed, with tax levy changes varying from a 1.1 percent decrease to a 4.4 percent increase. Onteora's last two increases have hovered around nine percent.
            In response to a question about the need to improve technology resources and instruction, she said an upgrade was accomplished at Webatuck by obtaining grants from politicians. Many teachers offered resistance, but training was made mandatory, and the teachers went from 20 percent to 90 percent participation in the use of computers in the classroom. Winters emphasized the need for integration of computers into the curriculum, as well as a technology plan to drive changes.
Regarding the Federal government's No Child Left Behind Act, she commented, "I'm not confident it will really help. It's not being well thought out. Some of the tests are not designed by educators but are contracted out to companies. I'm disappointed portfolio assessment is not part of the process. A one- or two-day test shouldn't be the only measure of a student's abilities."
            Finally, Winters has noted that after state      commissioner of education Richard Mills ordered districts with Indian mascots to reassess their policies-after Onteora's mascot debacle-Webatuck organized a study group to discuss their team name, the Webatuck Warriors, and their symbol, an Indian head with headdress. While some people felt the team name implied violence, the final decision was that it had a positive connotation that could be applied in many areas of life and was not specific to Native Americans. The symbol's headdress, however, was deemed to be out of place, since it represented the dress of a Plains Indian, not of the Mohicans who had lived in the local area. The board commissioned a local children's book illustrator to research the region's past and provide them with an inspirational artwork. He painted a landscape of the Webatuck Creek with a canoe and a cluster of small structures among a grove of trees. Students will work with his images to come up with a school symbol that is more historically appropriate, said Winters, "possibly a man and woman in a canoe." She mentioned that she had taught for some time on the Onondaga Reservation in central New York State.
            Winters formerly worked as a teacher and an administrator at the Wappingers school district, where her two daughters went to school. One of them received, upon graduation, a portfolio representing her work from kindergarten through twelfth grade.    Asked if she were tough enough to stay the course at Onteora, Winters replied, "I'm challenged when the going gets tough. Being nice doesn't mean you can't make tough calls and draw a line in the sand."